Alcohol In Gift !!!!!

mary19

Having purchased a non alcoholic gift from gifts.ie, they sent 2 bottles of wine ! not much good when the recipient is an alcoholic, and what did we get... nothing, not even an apology. All I was told was that it was an error ! that is some error to make...

Plek Trum

Thats definately not good enough! I would have expected an acute apology at the very least. I would suggest you get back onto them and reiterate the sensitive gravity of their mistake...

mary19

I have emailed so many times and they actually wanted the hamper back, I had ordered it January and got a call from my Father telling me that I was very insensitive sending the hamper, I hadn't a clue what he was talking about and just though "Oh they didn't like it" then a load of things happened here in my house and it was Feb before I got to see them and when I did, i got the wine practically thrown at me, not surprising as we dealt with sever alcoholism in our family home for many years with my Mother and here she was now being sent a hamper with wine in it.

There was no hamper to send back and the guy said it was a packing error that the wrong one had been sent !!!

I had ordered off them many times, one hamper was alcoholic hamper last year but the wine in it was going to my brother who lived at home then with his wife, i had phoned and told my brother to take the wine for themselves and not let my Mother have it, other than that all hampers were non alcoholic..

I have heard nothing back, Dad still thinks I was being rude by sending it and there was no apology sent to them..

I am so furious..

Vikings

I don't have any experience with that site but just had a quick look at the hampers that they do and most if not all of them have some form of alcohol in them? Not sure what hamper you bought or what you specified to them (no alcohol etc.) but how are they to know that the recipient is an alcholic in all fairness?

They seem to have admitted that it was an error on their behalf that this was sent but what exactly are you looking for from them for the mistake?

mary19

They do , do hampers that have no alcohol, the one I ordered was the 'afternoon tea' one, yes maybe 8 years ago my Mother may have drank 2 bottles of wine for her afternoon tea but not now.

When you order hampers with them, they list what you are to get, it did not list alcohol so naturally I assumed it would come without alcohol, how silly of me, I should have realised that this is Ireland and you can be fobbed of with many other things and expected not to complain when you paid a fair amount of money and got something completely different.

We suffered many years of alcoholism in our home and no of course not I don't expect them to realise that my Mother is an alcoholic however I do expect them to send what I ordered and paid for, I am tired of having to put up with errors made because of staff incompetence, what would have happened if my Father had not have been in the house when the hamper arrived ? god forbid he had of been out, and with the amount of tablets she is on now one drink would kill her, so yes a mistake which is nothing to you would be devastating for us because it could have been fatal, the least they could have done was apologised..

Vikings

I see the one you ordered now, didn't notice the 2nd page of hampers.

I understand where you are coming from and you have a right to be upset about it also! How much contact have you had with them since you found out about what they sent?

If I were you I would be trying to find a contact number (01-4000365) and speak to a manager (if you havn't already). I'm sure if you explain the problem to them then you should get a more satisfactory response.

Failing that.... gifts.ie Unit 1 Robinhood Business Park, Ballymount, Dublin 22...!

All depends what you want to come from this - if it's just an apology then phoning them should be good enough i'd say.

mary19

I keep getting put through to the same person and when I ask for someone different I get him, I have emailed and I get him. maybe I will write a letter and address it to the Manager, I think he said he was a manger but you just never know when you are not dealing with someone face to face.

I don't want anything personally, I am not looking for freebies but to be honest I think my father thinks I did it on spite... you see we all had just had an argument and I sent Mom the hamper as an apology but of course with the wine in it they though I was being smart..

Vikings

mary19 wrote: »

I keep getting put through to the same person and when I ask for someone different I get him, I have emailed and I get him. maybe I will write a letter and address it to the Manager, I think he said he was a manger but you just never know when you are not dealing with someone face to face.

I don't want anything personally, I am not looking for freebies but to be honest I think my father thinks I did it on spite... you see we all had just had an argument and I sent Mom the hamper as an apology but of course with the wine in it they though I was being smart..

Yeah I know what you mean, it may very well be that he is the manager and just doesn't understand good customer service!

In that case I would be asking for the company to write a written letter to your parents explaining the mix up and apologising for it.

gebbel

mary19 wrote: »

Having purchased a non alcoholic gift from gifts.ie, they sent 2 bottles of wine ! not much good when the recipient is an alcoholic, and what did we get... nothing, not even an apology. All I was told was that it was an error ! that is some error to make...

I would add that I think it was a big mistake on your part to have considered such a present to give to an alcoholic. I know it's non-alcoholic that you wanted, but that could then become a temptation for the real thing. You should be more considerate about the gifts you buy this person in future.

Kinetic^

gebbel wrote: »

I would add that I think it was a big mistake on your part to have considered such a present to give to an alcoholic. I know it's non-alcoholic that you wanted, but that could then become a temptation for the real thing. You should be more considerate about the gifts you buy this person in future.

Did you actually read the entire thread? It was the website's mistake and not hers!! :rolleyes:

pow wow

gebbel wrote: »

I would add that I think it was a big mistake on your part to have considered such a present to give to an alcoholic. I know it's non-alcoholic that you wanted, but that could then become a temptation for the real thing. You should be more considerate about the gifts you buy this person in future.

She didn't order non-alcoholic wine, she ordered a hamper with NO wine.

Anyway to OP I don't know what you can do other than keep hammering at them for an apology (would your dad believe a written one?). Perhaps put your complaint in letter form so they might feel more obliged to reply to it. That is some cheek asking for the hamper back - did the 'manager' do that or was it one of the employees?

mary19

gebbel wrote: »

I would add that I think it was a big mistake on your part to have considered such a present to give to an alcoholic. I know it's non-alcoholic that you wanted, but that could then become a temptation for the real thing. You should be more considerate about the gifts you buy this person in future.

Jeeze reading this is even more annoying than the gifts.ie that sent the wrong hamper.. did you just read every second word... that is so insensitive of you to make such an insinuation or do you not actually understand the meaning of NON ALCOHOLIC ???????? where ever I would buy hamper from they are going to have alcohol in the buildings, the least I expect is not to get it in my gift when I order a gift that contains no alcohol and I ask for no alcohol..

Read the posts properly in future.

mary19

ellscurr wrote: »

She didn't order non-alcoholic wine, she ordered a hamper with NO wine.

Anyway to OP I don't know what you can do other than keep hammering at them for an apology (would your dad believe a written one?). Perhaps put your complaint in letter form so they might feel more obliged to reply to it. That is some cheek asking for the hamper back - did the 'manager' do that or was it one of the employees?

The guy that asked for the hamper back after telling me it was €9 more expensive :eek: said he was the manager, but he could have been the tea boy for all I know, actually a tea boy would have had more cop on.:D

I finally spoke with my Dad the other day and I explained all over to him again about what happened, he said it's water under the bridge but there is still that cool feeling between us, I don't know if he doesn't believe me or what, I asked him if he would like a written apology from the company and he said no and said nothing more.

Then........ a few days later my brother phoned me and was nearly coming down the phone at me, he was so angry, he just kept saying "why are you constantly dragging this up again about that bl***y hamper, do you not think it's bad enough that you sent her alcohol after your fight but now dad recons you are going to get someone to hand write an apology" (I knew he didn't believe me) I was devastated, now my brother is annoyed at me, it's so long now and my family are so annoyed at me, I wish I had never bought the darn thing to begin with.

No matter what I do or say my family don't believe me, they think I did it on spite..:(:(:(:(

jor el

gebbel wrote: »

You should be more considerate about the gifts you buy this person in future.

And you should learn to read and/or understand the thread before posting.

mary19 wrote:

No matter what I do or say my family don't believe me, they think I did it on spite

Do you have a receipt from gifts.ie showing what you actually bought? Perhaps print that off and show it to them. If they still don't believe you then tell them to go fck themselves if they choose to believe you are a liar and would be that spiteful.

Mountjoy Mugger

I think OP should let sleeping dogs lie, judging by her most recent post.

You have my sympathies.

mary19

jor el wrote: »

And you should learn to read and/or understand the thread before posting.


Do you have a receipt from gifts.ie showing what you actually bought? Perhaps print that off and show it to them. If they still don't believe you then tell them to go fck themselves if they choose to believe you are a liar and would be that spiteful.

They sent the receipt that listed the contents and price along with the hamper to my Mother, it was the wrong list, it was the one for the hamper containing 2 bottles of wine, I just got a price receipt there was nothing listing what the contents were.

I am , was very close to my parents, my Mom is very ill, my Dad's not in the best of health either and I don't want to be fighting with them at this stage of their life, I am a grown Mother too and it feels like school yard behaviour.

My parents have always been there for me, they have helped me out no end, my Mother has a life threatening disease and we don't know how long she has left, the argument was over this disease and her past behaviour when she was drinking. I want to be close to them again, it is difficult to know that they are disappointed with me.

I think it is just this situation that has made them think like this, they are usually really understanding, but the argument was about alcohol mainly and I really expressed how disgusted I was at her, I ended up storming out of the room and my last words that night were "go buy some alcohol and drown your sorrows" :mad::mad:and I tried to make it up to her, but those idiots sent her god damn wine.... oh I'm sorry for loosing it there, I am so upset, I am 35 years of age and I am crying like a 2 year old.

They gifts.ie have really messed up things in my family, it so wasn't worth buying a hamper..:(:(:(:(

Wertz

Man that sucks. Sorry for all the bad things snowballing on you. Lot of trouble in my family with alcoholism too so I know just where you're coming from.
TBH this is just the sort of thing that Joe Duffy would get sorted out...there's nothing like a bit of bad publicity on the airwaves to put the fire under a company like this.
I've never ever understood the motivation behind buying hampers for people, illustrated by that UK company going bust last year and screwing over a load of people with money paid into a club....but that's not at issue here.
Seriously I would get on to liveline with that (laugh if you must)...it's just so indicative of a faceless uncaring company that they'll fob you off until their potential customers are hearing how crap they are...
Hope you get something sorted out...

mary19 wrote:

They gifts.ie have really messed up things in my family, it so wasn't worth buying a hamper..:(:(:(:(

Gah that feeling of regret whilst being doubly cheated...you tried to do something right and it turned around and did the opposite through no fault of yours.
Idiots.

mary19

Thank you for your reply, I am just not gutsy enough to talk on a radio station,but maybe I should... I was so furious that I came on here to vent my anger... It was so annoying, still nothing has changed in my family all still being really cool with each other and my brother is still not talking to me, so if anyone wants to get their family split up and have arguments and coolness buy something from gifts.ie..

Hagar

I must say I'm appalled at the way you have been treated.

Mistakes can happen, we have to accept that but it's how customers are treated afterwards that is important.

A simple letter of apology is not too much to expect in the circumstances.
To suggest that you should be grateful as you received a more expensive hamper beggars belief.

As an Irishman living abroad I am dependant on companies like Gifts.ie to send presents to people at home.
After reading this I know who I won't be using in future.

311

It's no conislation ,but you've probably helped a lot of people by posting about http://www.gifts.ie

Absolutely appauling carry on from them.

Ruu_Old

I would hope they would come on board here to answer up, engage with the customer and just to get their side of the story. They are aware of this thread.

mary19

They are aware of this thread ??? how do you know. Do you know this guy from this company that I was talking to ? it would be a pity that he's discussed it with other strangers and not me..I wrote it to have a vent about them, I have fallen out with my family cos of it. I don't want anything from them, at this stage I don't even want an apology, I will never use them again.

I am not looking for an argument, the mistake was made, they admitted it and that is enough for me to know that they are not to be trusted. If it was something that you eat being left out then I wouldn't bother with the whole thing but it was alcohol, the one thing I really did not want in that hamper.

It has gone on so long now that I have looked into another hamper company one in Raheny and I will use the from now on. I don't want any more to do with this company and I will concentrate getting back on friendly terms with my parents and family.

giftsie

Hi,

This is Anthony from gifts.ie. I am the Managing Director of this Company and would like to present our side of the story as I believe this tread inaccurately reflects on how this issue was handled. I came across the thread the other day after one of our existing customers notified us.

Firstly, it certainly appears an error was made with this order and having initially been notified via email on Thursday 21/02 we responded on the 22/02 to seek more information on which hamper was received in error so we could investigate. We fully appreciated the seriousness of the complaint and in this initial email, we of course provided an apology to the client. ("I am very sorry to hear of this extremely disappointing email").

The client got back with the contents of the hamper (that same day 22/02) and we identified it as being a similar but incorrect item containing alcohol. I responded (22/02) apologising again stating "We can collect this item and re-issue the correct basket. Alternatively, if the goods have been consumed at this, we could send a letter of apology to your recipients. Please advise us how best we can resolve this issue for you."

We then heard that it was not possible to return the items via reply email. I since called the client leaving a message once again to seek a satisfactory outcome and am awaiting a reply.

I think is was unfair to state the following in the above thread:

"nothing, not even an apology" was offered and "All I was told was that it was an error!" - An apology note was offered. This is certainly still the case.

"I should have realised that this is Ireland and you can be fobbed of with many other things and expected not to complain when you paid a fair amount of money and got something completely different." - We send thousands of similar items each year and we rarely make such packing mistakes. However, human errors occasionally occur and when such things happen we always try to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

"I have emailed so many times and they actually wanted the hamper back" - We initially offered to substitute the item immediately. We responded to every email received.

"I keep getting put through to the same person and when I ask for someone different I get him". We have several staff here in the office however when I seen the initial complaint come in I wanted to handle it as the Managing Director. No other staff have been requested to deal or have dealt with the issue.

"The guy that asked for the hamper back after telling me it was €9 more expensive" - I have the email correspondence and although we did state the price of the hamper sent in error to help identify the item, this had nothing to do with requesting the item back.

I would of course have preferred to deal with such issues directly and I and my staff are available to always assist and resolve such issues. However when I seen so many reads & replies felt it only fair that we should have our say on boards.ie. As I hope the client is reading this thread, please get in contact with me so we can make amends with you or help resolve any family issues by apologising to the necessary people.

Thanks,
Anthony

Mr. Presentable

Whilst I sympathise with the OP's predicament, it's not like Gifts.ie targeted her family with temptation in a malicious way. It was a mistake - we all make them. The OP needs to accept the apology offered and move on as best she can.

Our man in Havana

They should have offered to make amends much earlier.

Mr. Presentable

Bond-007 wrote: »

They should have offered to make amends much earlier.

Much earlier than next day?

mary19

As I am not one for arguments, I do not wish to get into any debates here.

I have to say that this is the most that was said to me regarding the whole situation.

As soon as I noticed that a mistake had been made I did phone, gifts and I was put on hold, I did end up hanging up and I phoned back later that day, I was told that I was being put through to you 'Anthony' no one asked me what the complaint was so I can understand how you are not aware of the problem before I emailed you. Then suddenly the line went dead. I did then email you and you did ask me to list what was in the basket, thankfully Dad had not shredded the contents list and I provided them to you, you acknowledged the mistake and told me it was the packing staff that made the error.

You wrote in your email that I could return the hamper and it would be replaced with the correct one or if I wanted you would issue an apology, I explained that the hamper had been bought in January and this was now February, my Dad had actually given me the wine and he gave most of the other contents to my Brother and his wife. It was impossible to return the hamper like I told you, I also said that we are all human and errors do happen, I was very pleasant to you in the email and I also added that an error like that could have been fateful.

You wrote that I wrote that 'not even an apology was offered', I did not say this ? I said 'what did we get... nothing, not even an apology' because we did not get one, I have said numerous times that you offered an apology, offering and giving are completely separate.

I have not and with my hand on my heart received any phone calls from you or the company, why say this, There is no messages on my house phone and I always have my mobile with me and it is always turned on. I have only spoken to you by email, when I phoned GIFTS.IE after the email the girl said she was putting me through to you and I hung up because I had already spoken with you through email and was not happy about the outcome. I have not received any phone calls form you and I have just received my phone bill so I can post you a copy of the calls I made to the company.

I am aware that you ship lots of gifts and I have gotten lots of gifts from you and I was very happy with them all, I have said earlier that if it was a problem with food item or whatever it would be no big deal,but to make a mistake with alcohol, what if I had of been sending this hamper to a teenager ? say I was sending it to a 15/16 year old 'afternoon tea hamper' what would the parents say ? I don't expect you to know our family history but where alcohol is concerned extra care must be taken, you cannot just say it was an error, you wanted to resolve it but I heard nothing more after the email, all I had was arguments from my family over the hamper and I heard nothing more from you.

When you say that We initially offered to substitute the item immediately. We responded to every email received. yes you did respond to my email and told me it was human error, you also said you would replace the hamper but you wanted the other one back so you could swap them or if I had not got the hamper you would send an apology, I really shouldn't have to ask for an apology, one should have been issued after the complaint, not now when I have come on here venting that you now want to give me one, i don't want one and nor does my parents, it has gone on way too long now.

At this stage now March, if an apology was sent to my Mother she would not be interested, this whole scenario has caused nothing but arguments and uproar within our family and my Dad has said he never wants to hear the company's name again, because for the past few week that is all that has been shouted back and forth and I can't blame him really, he has been through an enormous amount throughout his life and doesn't need these types of arguments now. they are both in heir late 60's and I am going to try rectify our relationship myself because God only knows how long they have left..

I was angry when I came on here, I was upset at the fact that my Mother received alcohol in a gift hamper when she is an alcoholic, I know and I have said before that you are not expected to know this but extreme care should be taken when dealing with alcohol.

I will not be contacting you, I want to just forget this whole thing now and I do not want to talk about it anymore. however thank you very much for coming on here and making a public apology, it was more than I wanted or deserved, as far as some of the other members are concerned they keep telling me to move on and maybe that is what I will do, this is now put behind me and finished with.

Many thanks

alanceltic

sounds to me like the company made a mistake, which under normal circumstance would have been a very minor issue and ok they probably could have been a little more sensetive to the situation but i think your reaction is a little bit OTT, you cant blame the company for a lack of trust between you and your father and this seems to be the problem at this stage, an argument waiting to happen if this is the case so dont vent all of your anger towards what would ordinarily have been a minor issue

311

alanceltic wrote: »

sounds to me like the company made a mistake, which under normal circumstance would have been a very minor issue and ok they probably could have been a little more sensetive to the situation but i think your reaction is a little bit OTT, you cant blame the company for a lack of trust between you and your father and this seems to be the problem at this stage, an argument waiting to happen if this is the case so dont vent all of your anger towards what would ordinarily have been a minor issue

I have a cousin who had to have her stomach pumped when she was 11 ,from drinking a whole bottle of wine.

This could easily of happened if a hamper was sent.

mary19

alanceltic wrote: »

sounds to me like the company made a mistake, which under normal circumstance would have been a very minor issue and ok they probably could have been a little more sensetive to the situation but i think your reaction is a little bit OTT, you cant blame the company for a lack of trust between you and your father and this seems to be the problem at this stage, an argument waiting to happen if this is the case so dont vent all of your anger towards what would ordinarily have been a minor issue

It must be wonderful having the perfect life like you and never having arguments with anyone, gosh wouldn't the world be such a better place if we all judged people like you.

Yes maybe I am OTT, I have been told that before and maybe the thought of my Mother having a drink which would not have had a good result as she is heavily medicated was a bit OTT, Silly me, I should not have blamed the company for sending alcohol in a non alcoholic gift lol, I should have just brushed it off and not worried about it.

I do however sincerely hope that you never encounter you parents or someone close to you that is heavily medicated or god forbid becomes an alcoholic and someone sends them alcohol as a gift.

I am a grown woman with my own family and I have got a wonderful relationship with everyone, and we all will again some day, it was unfortunate that this argument broke out, I would not say that I have trust issues or my Poor old Dad, he'd trust anyone, it was unfortunate that my Mother became fond of the drink and it caused some problems in the home, maybe I should look for a refund from the counsellor lol

good day to you

mary19

311 wrote: »

I have a cousin who had to have her stomach pumped when she was 11 ,from drinking a whole bottle of wine.

This could easily of happened if a hamper was sent.

That is very sad and can happen. I have a 19 year old daughter (Mary) whom I love dearly and thankfully she is a bright young woman now but she had her fair share of having a few drinks just like most teens who want to experiment, it is frightening that what happen to your poor cousin could have so easily happen to her in her early teens, alcohol is dangerous and not just in hampers, I did say to Anthony I wouldn't talk about again but it is dangerous..wherever you get it

username123

Im absolutely astounded at this thread.

Mary - it is not gifts.ie responsibility to control your mothers drinking!!! So they made a mistake - your reaction is way overboard!! The only person who can control your mothers drinking is herself - I do agree that it was an unfortunate substitution on behalf of gifts.ie but you need to accept reality and realise that if someone offers your mother a drink by accident or design that its up to HER to refuse it and this carry on of rows and arguments is obviously a symptom of a deeper dysfunction in the family!! Just for perspective - what if youd ordered a pink baby hamper and one item came in blue for a boy - would you be freaking out then??

I strongly suggest you get yourself some help in the form of Alanon as you do not seem to have to have the tools to deal with the fall out from someone elses drinking.

Mary - you cant go on like this - you are consumed by anger over a minor incident - you posted over on askaboutmoney on the same issue - and its not that big of a deal - please please get yourself some help or you will pass on the dysfunctional behaviour to your own kids.

gifts.ie - i absolutely cannot believe that the managing director of a company would come to boards.ie and address the complaints of a customer here!!! Was that post really from Anthony of gifts.ie? To me that displays a stunning lack of professionalism.

Again Im astounded. I cant believe a minor mistake in packing could blow to such huge proportions.

mary19

from what I can see you only have one post made so you came here to answer my post and only my post which leads me to believe you work for the company and you are trying to make the company look good.

this issue was dropped and here you are dragging it up with you immature words that make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

From the lack of your understanding you sound like a young child who has absolutely no concept of life.

If as you put it I received a blue hamper instead of a pink for a child no I wouldn't be freaking out, reason being because it would not kill the child.

you must be extremely lucky in your life to not have anyone with any sort of illness because that is what alcoholism is.

Our family is not dysfunctional however if you are planning on studying the subject I would suggest that you get a better education.

I am certainly not consumed by anger, by the tone of your words you were probably banging your head of your computer, you are the person that sounds angry and maybe a little frustrated, maybe you had no attention as a child and to bitterly attack someone on a board shows how little respect you have in your own life.

I have gotten all the counseling I need, however I can pass on the number to you for anger management, that is something much more serious and I would hate to be in your shoes with those anger issues.

jor el

username123 wrote: »

Mary - it is not gifts.ie responsibility to control your mothers drinking!!! So they made a mistake - your reaction is way overboard!! The only person who can control your mothers drinking is herself - I do agree that it was an unfortunate substitution on behalf of gifts.ie but you need to accept reality and realise that if someone offers your mother a drink by accident or design that its up to HER to refuse it and this carry on of rows and arguments is obviously a symptom of a deeper dysfunction in the family!! Just for perspective - what if youd ordered a pink baby hamper and one item came in blue for a boy - would you be freaking out then??

Nobody is suggesting the the problems experienced by the OPs mothers is the fault or responsibility of gifts.ie. What is being said it that it was their responsibility for sending an alcoholic gift in error in the first place. What if the gift was for someone under 18 and gifts.ie sent alcohol? They could find themselves in a lot of trouble for supplying alcohol to minors, and I would hope they would check, check and check again before sending out anything containing alcohol.

username123 wrote: »

I strongly suggest you get yourself some help in the form of Alanon as you do not seem to have to have the tools to deal with the fall out from someone elses drinking.

I don't think you or anyone else here is in a position to suggest what kind of counseling or help the OP may need.

username123 wrote: »

gifts.ie - i absolutely cannot believe that the managing director of a company would come to boards.ie and address the complaints of a customer here!!! Was that post really from Anthony of gifts.ie? To me that displays a stunning lack of professionalism.

As far as we can tell, he is. Many companies use boards to help resolve customer issues, in fact there's an entire section for exactly that.

Since the issue has been dealt with by both sides, there's no need to continue this any further so I'm going to lock this thread unless one of the other mods feels it should be re-opened.